Take Home Message: The
Tau-A biomarker is a potential biomarker to distinguish those at risk for
prolonged recovery following a concussion.

Diagnosis
and return to play following a concussion rely heavily on subjective
information from athletes. Thus, there is a great need to develop an objective
tool, such as a blood test, to diagnose and monitor a concussion. Therefore,
the authors evaluated professional Swedish ice hockey players to determine the
utility of 2 fragments of tau, an intracellular
protein in the central nervous system, (tau-A & tau-C) for diagnosis and
prognosis of sports-related concussions.

Take
Home Message: College athletes have decreased quadriceps:hamstring activation
ratio, increased peak hamstring activation, and increased trunk sway when
landing on an unstable surface versus a stable surface.

Proper co-contraction of the hamstrings
and quadriceps muscle groups is critical in stabilizing the knee joint to
reduce the risk of sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury. While
previous literature has demonstrated a correlation between jump training on an
unstable surface and a reduction in ACL injuries, no study has looked at the
quadriceps:hamstring activation ratio (Q:H ratio) during these tasks, which could help
clinicians gauge how important this training regime may be. Therefore, Shultz
and colleagues recruited 39 female National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) Division 1 college athletes and compared Q:H ratio during landing on a
stable surface and an unstable surface.

Take Home Message: Fear of re-injury,
exercise importance, and age are associated with return to activities after an
anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

A patient’s perceived importance of
exercise and fear of re-injury are very important when recovering from anterior
cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery. Short-
and long-term outcomes of successful return to activity and previous levels of
activity may be affected by these perceptions.
The authors of this study investigated perceptions of exercise and
re-injury fears pre-surgery and annually up to three years post-surgery in 95
participants.

Take
Home Message: After overhead shoulder fatigue, healthy individuals have an
increase in acromiohumeral distance and altered scapular position, consistent
with a protective, impingement-sparing situation.

Muscle fatigue due to
overhead sports has been hypothesized to contribute to shoulder impingement
(and subsequent rotator cuff pathology) by altering the position of the scapula
and narrowing the subacromial space.
However, conflicting evidence exists in the literature and as a result,
no consensus has been established. This
may be due to the fact that most investigators use different fatiguing
protocols that do not resemble overhead sports activity and only indirectly
measure the subacromial space. Therefore,
the objective of this study was to assess the effect of a fatigue protocol that
resembled overhead sports activity on scapular position and acromiohumeral distance,
which is indicative of the amount of subacromial space.

Take
Home Message: Following a fatiguing exercise protocol, participants
showed increased anterior tibial translation, compressive force, and knee
flexion range of motion during the transition from non-weight-bearing to
weight-bearing. This illustrates an inability of the lower extremity muscles to
stabilize the knee joint.

An athlete is at greater risk for a
noncontact injury, such as an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear, later in
games. While it is believed that fatigue may play a role in ACL injury, little
evidence exists to support this. If this can be verified, clinicians may be
able to identify strategies to better train athletes to stabilize the knee
joint in a fatigued state and limit the risk of sustaining an ACL injury.
Therefore, Schmitz and colleagues completed a cross-sectional study to assess
the impact of a fatiguing exercise protocol on tibiofemoral biomechanics when
transitioning from non-weight-bearing to weight-bearing.

A new consensus statement
regarding the team physician and strength and conditioning of athletes for
sports has been published in Medicine &
Science in Sports & Exercise. The goal of this document was “to
optimize the performance of the athletes and minimize the risk of injury and
illness.” The document covers strength and conditioning principles (e.g.,
specificity, progressive overload), sport-specific strength and conditioning,
strength and conditioning program implementation, injury and illness
implications of strength and conditioning, as well as selected current issues
in strength and conditioning.

Take Home Message: Specific genotypes that influence new blood
vessel growth are more common among individuals with an anterior cruciate
ligament tear.

The growing trend to investigate an
individual’s genetic coding to determine if they are more likely to sustain an
injury can help us identify individuals at risk for injury and understand why
people may be susceptible to injury. Genetic variations that influence the
composition of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) may increase the risk of ACL
ruptures (see related posts below). Genes
that are related to new blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) may influence the
composition of ACLs but no one has examined if genetic variations in these
genes are related to ACL tears. The
authors of this case-control study aimed to identify if
individuals who had suffered an ACL injury had genetic coding differences from
physically active controls.

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